Thanks to all the amazing people in my life male and female that have helped me live the 'life' I lead and do the things I have done, especially my family who have supported me in so many ways, my great friend Dave Manby for his confidence to employ a very young wide eyed female as his safety kayaker for his business in Eastern Turkey in 2000, that opportunity has given me the confidence to do so many things in life. Great things have been done to get women to this point in the short time of human history and we should take time to celebrate that, in surfing the women now have equal prize money something other sports should be rightly ashamed of not equaling! There are too many women who work and play in the outdoors that inspire me to start naming them, I hope like we all do that in some small way I have helped others on their journey in life and I continue to enjoy and get great satisfaction from doing that with my small coaching business.

Once we have had our day of 'celebration' lets get back to work as we're only part of the way.

So here it is a quick write up on our amazing couple of weeks riding in Livigno Italy. After a drive out from the UK with a stop in Southern Germany to give wee Fin a break we drove through the final couple of hours and through the last tunnel into the amazing valley that Livigno sits nestled in between the mountains in between Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

Our holiday started off with a couple of fun packed high octane days on the Mottoline DH trails with Jen (Ally's sister) and Rich, Clive, Dave and Lucy from the 'There Will Be Mud' crew who were also out there for the first week. The Mottoline area is fantastic array of trails all right off the lift with drops jumps, northshore, wall rides as well as flowy and more technical trails including a DH World Champs DH track.

It's definitely a haven for anyone who likes the more 'challenging' trails! We split our time riding the trails and hanging about in town and down by the lake with Finlay. With lots to do, see eat and drink this was never the 'short straw!'

Here is the Mottoline trail map:

As well as these trails Livgno is surrounded by an amazing array of XC trails up and down the side of the valleys and over 2000m+ mountain passes or linking in from the two lift areas (Mottoline and Carosello3000) Whether you're after amazing riding or amazing views or both it really has it all! WE took trail 26 down the valley and were rewarded with a fantastic day out on the bikes together.

We then started to explore the other side off the valley on the Carosello3000 lift system, we had previous contacted them about getting the Tout Train trailer on the lifts, which they were fine with. With it's newly developed 'flow' trails and stunning views of the surrounding mountain and valley the trails here are superb fun and we had some real fun riding.

We obviously had to stop and sample the local beer too!

While we were checking out the trail network we started planning a two day ride camping by a lake on the middle night on one of the trails, you can ride it in a day, however we wanted to stretch it out and enjoy it rather than rush it as we had Fin with us in the trailer!

We climbed out of the lake on an exhausting trail up to the high pass at 2300m we were rewarded with a real sense of achievement and also some stunning views.

The reward was a sweet bit of singletrack descending in to the next valley to the amazing Blue lake for our overnight camp.

We had a bit of a thunderstorm pass through but Fin seamed to enjoy his first night of proper camping too.

The next day we had to climb over another high pass with a welcome stop at a farm for some well earned refreshments and a bit of a dry out. We were welcomed in as usual and had the best latte's made with fresh milk from the cows on the farm while we checked our progress!

We still had a good few days left, so we whiled them away cruising around town checking out the many shops and cafes. Whilst riding even more fantastic riding trails.

We where in Livigno when the Nine Knights Competition was been held up by Mottolino and we got to see some amazing riding by a World Class line up including the UK's Sam Pilgrim.

Livigno is not the easiest place in the Alps to get to but its well worth the extra journey and they are developing more trails every year. Being a duty free enclave keeps the overall cost down too and there were some great bargains to be had in the many shops. We will be back for sure!

Big thanks to:

Santa Cruz & Juliana bicycles, Bronson and Furtado were faultless as ever and gave us a fantastic ability to ride the steeper and more technical stuff with confidence but still have the ability to ride up the amazing mountain trails while towing the trailer with Fin! The BOS suspension we run soaked up the big hits well and were as smooth as ever on the trails.

Toute Terrain, again the single-trailer is such a fantastic piece of kit, it has allowed us to keep riding as a family and Fin definitely loved being out and about in it.

We never needed our Sweet Protection lids however knowing there the best on the market is comforting for sure and our riding gear performed faultless in a wide mix of conditions.

The things people say!

Wow, what a revelation! I had been a little worried about the trail 'features' I came across at the various trail centres I've ridden.After the Jumps and Drops course, I am so much more confident now that I know the techniques to use and, more importantly, why I need to use them!

Trefor

Absolutely great weekend. Having mountain biked for longer than Ive road biked I couldn't believe the practical skills I could be taught, and how much they could improve the simple handling and the fun. For those who haven't done much MTB stuff it would be great to learn it right from the beginning, for those who have done a lot, like me really worth it. Ill be up for another one.

Dom

I went to Sherwood Pines today and cycled the red and loved it. I felt so much more relaxed, I didn't manage the rock garden but i did the rest including small drop offs. I. cant wait to go back.I'm so grateful to you for helping meHope you have a good bank holiday weekend with your family

Michelle

Was a great course and learnt so much more than what I was expecting. We just need to piece it all together on the trails now and we should be ok.Thanks again Ally and look forward to seeing you in the future for some more coaching.Kind regards

Pete

Thanks for that, Well I was up Antor this weekend and no major drama's. Even managed the drops at Forest of dean.....so everything is going in the right direction. I'd certainly be interested in the course at Afan.Look forward to seeing you soon.Kind regards